You will be able to set up the tags and fields your tool needs to build segments automatically.
Open the contact list in an email tool that has been used for a few years without a plan, and you often find tags like "promo", "Promo2", "nov list", "VIP?", "test", "Jas import" and "DO NOT USE". Nobody remembers what most of them mean, so nobody trusts them, so nobody builds segments from them. The data was collected. It just cannot be used.
Lesson 6.1 chose the segments worth building. This lesson sets up the data underneath them, so your tool can build those segments automatically and anyone can still read it a year from now.
Email tools store information about each subscriber in two main ways. The words vary by tool, but the idea is the same.
A field holds a fact about a person, with one value at a time. First name, the level of a child, a postcode area, the date of the last order. When the fact changes, the value is replaced.
A tag marks that something happened or that a person has an interest. Downloaded the ordering guide. Clicked the wedding cake link. Attended a trial class. Interested in baking classes. A person can carry many tags at once, and tags are usually added and only sometimes removed.
A rough rule: if it has one answer at a time, use a field. If it is an event or an interest that can sit alongside others, use a tag. Some tools also have lists or groups, which work much like tags for this purpose.
You rarely type this information in by hand. It flows in from four main sources.
Signup forms are the first. The form from lesson 2.4 can add a tag for the lead magnet and fill a field from any question it asks, like Priya's child level question.
Link clicks are the second. Many tools let you add a tag automatically when someone clicks a particular link in an email. When Mei Ling's newsletter mentions wedding cakes and links to her wedding page, everyone who clicks can be tagged as interested in weddings, without being asked.
Purchases are the third. If you sell through an online shop platform, an integration with your email tool can pass over who bought, what and when. This is how "customer" and "last order date" get filled in without anyone updating a spreadsheet. For businesses without a shop integration, such as a tuition centre taking bookings through a form, a tag added when a booking is confirmed does the same job.
Preference pages are the fourth. When a subscriber ticks topics on the page from lesson 6.1, the tool records those choices as tags or fields.
Every piece of data you collect is personal data under the PDPA, which you met in lesson 1.2. That means you should collect it for a purpose you have told people about, and only collect what you need for that purpose.
In practice, this lines up with good email habits anyway. Ask for a child's level if you will send level-specific tips. Do not ask for a date of birth just in case. Tagging clicks to send more relevant emails is the kind of use your consent line and privacy notice should mention, in plain words, so subscribers are not surprised. If your current notice does not cover it, update it before you start.
Data you are not using is also a liability. It has to be protected, and it can be wrong. Keep the set small.
The tag mess at the top of this lesson is the normal result of tagging without a plan. A naming scheme prevents it. It does not need to be elaborate. It needs to be consistent and written down.
One workable pattern is a prefix for the kind of tag, a colon, and a plain description. For example:
source: ordering guide, source: market signup, source: website footer interest: weddings, interest: baking classes action: clicked December dates, action: attended trial class status: customer, status: re-permission sent
With prefixes, tags sort together in the tool, and anyone can tell at a glance what a tag means and roughly where it came from. Use lowercase, full words, and no private abbreviations. For fields, use plain labels like "Child level" and "Last order date".
Write the scheme in a short document and keep it beside your tool login. If a teammate, a freelancer or you in a year's time adds a tag, they check the document first.
In the activity below you will write your own naming scheme for tags and fields, then set up at least two tags in your tool that are added automatically, from a form signup or a link click.
Write a naming scheme for your tags and fields, and set up at least two tags in your tool from form signups or link clicks.
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